United States Will Provide an Extra 40 Million to the Romanian Army

President Traian Basescu returned yesterday to Bucharest very content of the results of his packed with meetings official visit to Washington. At the unscheduled press-conference at the airport, Basescu announced that the United States will fund with an extra 40 million dollars the Romanian army, on top of the money already ear-marked for that purpose this year. For next year another 30 millions will be allocated.

Basescu, pleased that during his meeting with President George W. Bush he received a message of support from the United States, the Romanian president called his visit to Washington "a very productive one, from a political standpoint."

He declined to speculate on the contracts that would possibly be sealed as a result of his visit, stressing that his was a political visit. Basescu’s stance was that both the Romanian and the American Executives reached their intended targets during his two-day stay in the U.S.

The president said that the talks he had with representatives of some big American companies proved that cutting down the personal and corporate taxation was the best decision made in Romania’s fiscal policy. "If Romania will develop an environment conducive for big investments, the large American companies most certainly will locate their businesses here," Basescu said, naming General Motors and Ford among the companies which are to invest in Romania soon. The president said that the American food industry was also interested in investing here.

Two emotionally charged moments of the visit occurred when the president visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington and the Navy Military Hospital Bethesda.

If the past made a strong impression on Basescu at the Holocaust Museum, the present suffering of the American military personnel wounded in Iraq was the one present on his mind at the Bethesda Hospital. Basescu said that he conveyed the wounded military the "solidarity of the Romanian army."